2019-05-22

                                 Christianity I


Despite its place as a major world religion, Christianity is one of the
religions which I personally understand least. This is mainly because I
don't personally know many Christians, coupled with the fact that
reading the religion's sacred text, the Holy Bible, doesn't give a full
impression of what modern Christian religious practice is like.

My friend Natalie is one of the few Christians I know. I promised I
wouldn't bug her with too many questions about her religion (due to her
current poor health) but when I expressed interest in learning more
about Christianity she suggested I attend an Alpha course. Alpha courses
are run worldwide by/at a variety of churches and "[seek] to introduce
the basics of the Christian faith through a series of talks and
discussions." (Wikipedia, 2019).

I plan to attend such a course soon, but felt I should outline what I
(think I) know about Christianity before this to provide the perspective
of a complete outsider and so that I can later re-examine any
misconceptions I may have at this point.

What follows is not necessarily an accurate description of what
Christians believe or what they do, but rather a distillation of
Christian belief / practice, filtered through modern Western culture,
and drunk by a non-Christian.

Christianity is a form of monotheism based on the Torah, the Jewish book
of sacred law (the Old Testament) and Christian story of the life and
teachings of Jesus Christ, the son of God (the New Testament). Together,
the Old Testament and the New Testament constitute the Holy Bible.

The deity of Christianity is known simply as God. God is seen (among
other things) as a creator deity and a deity to be invoked through the
ritual of prayer.

Christians seem to have a complex relationship with prayer (i.e., a
petition or request made to God), as prayer is not always expected to be
successful. In (some, but not all, I suppose) other religions, a ritual
involving a petition to a deity is expected to lead to the desired
outcome if you do not commit an obvious error (such an being unclear
what you want or asking for something inappropriate or doing something
offensive). However, in the Christian context, prayer may or may not be
effective, depending, allegedly, on the will of God, which is considered
unknowable. This does not seem especially empowering.

Christianity is to some extent an afterlife-focussed religion (in this
respect it is like the ancient religion of Egypt, although without the
complex funerary rights), as a large part of Christian practice is
centered around ensuring that one enters Heaven, rather than Hell, after
one dies.

Heaven is the residence of God, but it is unclear (to me) what its other
attributes are. Nonetheless, admission to Heaven is considered a Good
Thing. It seems that simply believing in Jesus Christ is sufficient to
be granted admission, though, which makes the whole thing seem too easy.
(I am not certain this view is shared by all Christians; it may be
specific to some sects.)

Hell, on the other hand, is a realm of eternal suffering and torture. It
is clearly not a place you want to end up.

This leads us a to another important figure in Christianity, the Devil.
The Devil rules over the domain of Hell and is also said to represent,
or take the form of, all the gods in the world other than the Christian
God. The Devil is thus a very powerful deity. The catch is that,
apparently, if you worship / follow / get sucked in by the Devil, you
will not be granted admission to Heaven in the next life. Bit of a
bummer.

Another important concept in Christianity is sin. Sins are acts that are
proscribed by god; some prohibitions are of immoral acts, some
prohibitions are discriminatory (i.e., people may be denied admission to
Heaven based on their personal characteristics rather than their moral
or religious conduct), others are just plain odd.

One thing I don't understand yet is what the relevance of sin is if
belief in Jesus is sufficient for admission to heaven (as Jesus will
forgive the sins of anyone who believes in him). I hope to figure this
out.